This web site brings together the various pieces of information that may be relevant to students, teaching assistants and perhaps even faculty associate with PHY140Y, Foundations of Physics.
It is badly in need of renovation and so will probably remain under construction throught the bulk of the semester as we find time to renovate, add new wings, fix the roof and so on.
The syllabus gives you a variety of information associated with the fall semester of the course. The fall semester syllabus outlines the topics we cover during the fall semester, of the course, which includes classical mechanics and special relativity. The spring semester description gives an updated view of the course once we get back from the holiday break. The course completes the introduction/review of classical mechanics and covers a variety of modern physics topics (quantum mechanics, atomic physics, the nucleus and particle physics).
The PHY140Y final exam is scheduled for Tuesday, April 20 from 2-5 PM in BNW3 (I believe that is the upper small gymnasium in the Benson Building).
Consult the following web page for information concerning the exam and the aid sheet that will be provided. The spring outline has been updated to reflect the material you will be responsible for on the final exam.
Every week, the teaching assistants and students cover a number of topics and/or problems. A set of "discussion problems" are handed out, along with their solutions. Postscript and Adobe acrobat files of these are found below:
Check out the new discussions page!
Problem sets are assigned about every other week. The problem sets and their solutions are listed below:
The following term tests and solutions are now available:
A histogram of the scores shows that the class average for Term Test 3 was about 62%. You should measure your performance relative to your class peers in the first instance. Although the class aveage is less than what I had hoped, we'll see how this is to be taken into account in the final weighting of the marks in the course.
A comparison of the histograms of the scores for the three mid-term exams illustrate the overall performance of the class. If you want to make some deep interpretation of the scores, compare your mark with the distributions for each exam.
I've now provided problem sets, discussions and term test 3 in both adobe acrobat (pdf) and postscript (ps) format. I suspect people would prefer the acrobat format as it is more compact (read: faster to load) and most people probably have the Acrobat Reader. If you don't, it is available from the Adobe Acrobat website
For those interested in postscript format, the most direct way of viewing these files is to use a package called ghostview (or GSview), which is bundled together with ghostscript to provide for postscript viewing and printing. This package can be downloaded to your PC from the Alladin ghost website .
I'm looking into alternate formats for these problem sets and discussions.
This page is sporadically (and probably poorly) maintained by Pekka Sinervo.
Last updated 19 Mar 1999